The present invention relates to a methodology for expediting the handling of print job output in the output bin of a printer. In particular, the present invention relates to where ink drying time is a concern that must be considered, as found for example with ink jet printers.
Ink jet printers have become very popular particularly for providing color print output. This has much to do with the economy of their production and therefore end cost to the consumer. Much of this economy has to do with inks that are used allow a relatively inexpensive hardware configuration. However, the inks used typically have a finite drying time which is slower than other types of printers. Much effort has been expended in overcoming the problems that arise from this limitation including developing faster dry inks. One such early approach was to simply take advantage of a slower print rate which would allow sufficient drying time between pages of printout. Where faster output is demanded this is a limitation to throughput. One approach as practiced by Hewlett Packard in U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,963 to Rasmussen et al., and incorporated in its entirety for its teaching, involves using collapsible support rails which hold the most recent page of printout above the output stack. It then drops that most recent page prior to another page of printout arriving for the output bin. This effectively increases the drying time and helps avoid one page sticking to another. This also helps with offset problems, where ink from the front of one page is transferred to the back of another page.
Another approach which is taken to solve ink drying time problems is to put a pause in the printing of a subsequent page until there is sufficient time for the drying of the current page. This time varies depending upon the page material. For example, transparencies need a considerably longer drying time so it is common for long pauses to be utilized in their printing. This considerably slows output and can be particularly frustrating when last minute transparencies are needed for a meeting or presentation.
Therefore, as discussed above there exists a need for a methodology which will solve the problem of page delays due to drying concerns before which subsequent pages may print. Thus, it would be desirable to solve this and other deficiencies and disadvantages with an improved methodology.